Portable boat



P. L. CRISP PORTABLE BOAT May 11, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Jan. 7,1950 FIG.2.

Inventor PHILLIP .L .CRISP May 11, 1954 P. L. CRISP 2,678,018

PORTABLE BOAT 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. '7, 1950 Inventor Patented May11, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PQRTABLE BOAT Phillip L. Crisp,Marion, N. C.

Application January 7, 1950, Serial No. 137,461

l1 Claim. (Cl. 114-123) The present invention relates to boats, and moreparticularly has reference to a portable selfpropelled boat which ishighly stable in use, thereby providing a boat which nds particularapplication for sporting purposes such as fishing, racing and the like.

Heretofore, it has been proposed to provide water vehicles wherein theboat body has been stably supported to prevent accidental overturning ofthe boat, together with pedal-operated means for imparting the necessarypropulsion to the boat. However, these prior assemblies have beenrelatively complex in structural detail and have not been especiallysuitable for fishing purposes.

An object of the present invention is to provide a boat of the characterdescribed wherein the body of the boat is provided with pontoonsadjustably supported by the boat whereby the pontoons rnay be folded toa nested position relative to the boat body to permit ease oftransportation and facilitate storage of the boat.

A further object of the invention is to provide a self-propelled boatwherein a pedal-operated drive connection is employed for imparting thenecessary movement to the propeller, and a seat structure carried by theboat is adjustable relative to the pedal-operated member.

Another object of the invention is to provide a foldable portable boatfor sporting purposes which can be easily and quickly folded fortransportation purposes and made ready for operation in a minimum oftime without the necessity of employing skilled help or requiring theuse or numerous tools.

With the foregoing and other objects in View, the invention consists inthe details of construction, and in the arrangement and combination ofparts to be hereinafter more fully set forth and claimed.

In describing the invention in detail, reference will be had to theaccompanying drawings forining part of this application, wherein likecharacters denote corresponding parts in the several views, and inwhich- Figure l is a plan View of the present invention` Figure 2 is afragmental plan view showing the manner in which the pontoons areswingably mounted to the hull.

Figure 3 is a View in side elevation, partly broken away, of theconstruction shown in Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a fragmental side elevational view, partly in section,showing propellers and the connections therefor.

Figure 5 is a front view of the boat shown in Figure 1 with pontoonsshown in adjusted positions by the broken lines.

Figure 6 is a detail view showing the pivotal connection between thehull and the pontoon supporting arm.

Referring to Figure l, l have shown a hull lil having a fiat stern 'iland an arcuate bow l2 which is curved downwardly, as at i3, merging witha fiat hull bottom It, The hull may be wood, metal or any other suitablematerial. The hull lli is stabilized by means of a pair of pontoons i5supported on opposite sides of the hull by connecting elements denotedgenerally i5.

A seat structure il is supported by the gunwales of the hull preferablyadjacent the stern, and a pedal-operated unit Ed is employed to impartmovement to propellers It and 2t, and a rudder 2l is detachablysupported by the stern of the boat, for the usual purposes.

The pontoons i5 may be of any desirable type and since each pontoon andits associated elements is similar in structural detail, the followingdescription will be confined to a single pontoon. A pair of spacedsupport plates 22 are conveniently attached to the side of the hull It,and one leaf of a hinge 23 is attached to the upper end of the plate 22,while the other leaf is secured to the lower face of an arm 251, theinner end of the arm being adapted to rest upon the gunwale of the huilwhen the arm is in the horizontal position as shown by the full lines inFigure 5. A pair of spaced ears 25 are provided on the plate 22 near thelower end thereof, and a similar pair of ears 2t are carried by thelower face of the arm 2d intermediate the ends of the arm. A link 2l ispivoted to the ears 25 as shown at 28, and a link 2i? having anelongated slot Sil pivoted to the ears 26, as shown at 1i i. A boit wingnut assembly 52 pivotally connects the links El and 29, and bypositioning the links in alinernent (Figure 5) and by drawing up thewing nut, it will be appreciated that the arm iii will be fastlysupported in the horizontal position. On the other hand, by releasingthe nut and bolt assembly, the pivotal connection between the .links maybe broken to enable the arm and as a consequence the pontoon to be moveddownwardly relative to the hull, as will later more fully described.

The outer end of each arm 2:5 is pivotally connected to an elongatedlink 33 by an adjusting device fill, the opposite end of the link 33being provided with a swivel 35 which is mounted in a swivel plate Sltmounted on the upper surface of thel pontoon l5. A wing nut or otherlocking device 3l cooperates with the swivel and swivel plate 35 to lockthe link 33 against pivotal movement. Manifestly, with the links 33 atright angles to the arms 211, the pontoons I5 will be firmly supportedrelative to the hull in the position shown in the full lines in Figures2 and 5. If it is desired, however, the pontoons may be moved to aposition at somewhat greater distance beyond the sides of the hull bymanipulating the locking devices 3ft and 3l so that the pontoons may beswung about the point of pivot of the links 33 to the arms Ztl, asindicated in the broken lines in the above mentioned figures. To enablethe pontoons to be folded to a nested position with respect to the hullIt, the pivot between the links 2l and 29 is broken whereupon the arms2t and the pontoons may be moved to the broken line location in Figure5, whereby the will be substantially parallel to the sides of the hullwith the pontoons located beneath the bottom of the hull. The boat may,of course, be very easily transported in this condition and will reduireconsiderably less room for storage purposes.

The seat structure. l l' comprises a suitable tubular framework se andeach end of the framework has a pair of downturned legs and thedownturned legs 39 are adapted to nt into sockets or seats Il@ providedat spaced intervals along each gunwale of the hull, and a suitablelocking device :il is provided for each forward leg 3,9. An arm and backharness 42 is attached to the gunwales of the hull by a ring structurei3 forwardly of the seat and the harness is provided with buckles eli toenable it to be adjusted for the particular user of the boat.

The pedal-operated unit l comprises an upstanding supporting bracket E5in which the shaft of the llt is journaled. A sprocket 4l is carried bythe pedal shaft and a chain .18 is trained around the sprocket il? and asmaller sprocket carried by the shaft 50 which is journaled in a bracket5 l. A gear G2 is supported by the shaft el! and meshes with a secondgear 53 mounted on upper end of shaft 54. The shaft 54, as indicated inFigure 3, extends downwardly through the bottom lll of the boat at anrelative to the bottom through a downwardly depending fin or keel-likemember 55. The outer end of the shaft 54 extends through a suitablepacking 5t to prevent the admission of water into the hull Hl.

A bracket 5l depends downwardly from the bottom of the hull of the boatand has spaced arms 53 and the arm 59 being angularly disposed withrespect to the arrn 58. The propeller I 9, preferably of the three-bladetype, is carried by a shaft the shaft 56 being rotatably mounted in thearm 5t. The shaft 54 is coupled to a horizontally extending fitting l bymeans of a univers ioint t?! of any suitable type and shaft 53 whichsupports the propeller is operably connected with the fitting Gi. Thefitting 5l comprises body having an enlarged recess Gd and a rectangularopening t5 extends inwardly from the base of the recess. The shaft S3 isprovided with a ball @t and the end of the shaft is squared, as shown attl', the squared portion 6l being adapted to enter the rectangularopening G5. Manifestly, as long as the shaft 54 is turned, it will beappreciated that the itting 6l will likewise be rotated by virtue of theuniversal joint E2, but with the shaft 63 in the position shown inFigure 4, the shaft will not be rotated. However, if the shaft is movedto a position whereby the squared extension 6l is within the opening 65,the shaft and the propeller 20 will rotate simultaneously with the shaft54.

In order to move the shaft 63 longitudinally, the shaft is provided witha bearing 66 which will enable the shaft to turn but will preventlengthwise displacement of the shaft. An arm 69 extends upwardly fromthe bearing 38 and downturned end la of a connecting rod ll is pivotallyconnected to the arm, as shown at l2. The rod ll is journalled inbearings 73 attached to the bottom I4 of the hull l t. The rod 'il isprovided with a control lever 'M which is parallel to the side of thehull, and the lever cooperates with a notched plate l5 supported by theside of the hull adjacent the seat Il. By placing the lever 14 in thedesired notch, the lever and its associated parts will be locked in thatparticular position. Manifestly, to move the squared extension 61 intothe recess t5, movement of the lever in the proper direction will swingthe downturned end 7&3 toward the bow of the hull and this movement willbe imparted to the arm E9, whereupon the shaft 63 will be movedforwardly, thus connecting the shaft 63 with the tting Si. The lever isthen locked in this position and both propellers will turn so long aspedals are operated. To disengage the propeller 2S, the lever is swungin the opposite direction whereupon the shaft 63 will assume theposition shown in Figure 4 and the fitting 6l will rotate independentlyof the shaft 63.

The operation of the boat may be briefly summarized as follows:

The boat is normally transported to the water body with the pontoons inthe position shown by the dotted lines in Figure 5 and, beforelaunching, the arms 2d are moved upwardly about the pivots, and the armsare maintained in the horizontal position by tightening the bolt andwing nut unit 32 when the links 2l and 29 are in alinernent. When thepontoons have been moved to the desired location relative to the side ofthe hull, the adjusting devices 3d are tightened to thus maintain thepontoons in the desired position.

The operator then sits in the seat with the harness in proper positionand by operating the pedals 4S a propeller I8 will be rotated throughthe drive connection between the pedals and the propeller. f it isdesired to also employ the propeller 2S, the control lever 'le ismanipulated so as to move the shaft E3 to a position where the extensionil? is lodged in the recess 35 and conscquently the propeller 2! will bemoved in unison with the propeller i9. Of course the movement of thelever 1li in the opposite direction will disconnect the propeller fromthe coupling and the tting t! will turn independently of the propellershaft G3.

The rudder 2! includes a blade 'IS of any suitable design, the bladebeing attached to a vertical rod or the like ll'. The rod 1l has anintegral horizontally extending portion "I8 which terminates in acontrol element T9. As shown in Figure 3, a notched bar 8G extendstransversely of the hull and conveniently attached at its ends to thegunwale. By disposing the horizontal portion 'I8 in one of the notchesin the bar, the rudder will be maintained in that position. The rod Ilis mounted to the stern of the boat for vertical pivotal movement bymeans of upper and lower clamps 8| and 82, respectively, the clampsbeing of the type which can be readily attached to or disconnected fromthe stern.

It will be appreciated, therefore, that I have provided a portable boatstructure which is very stable, thereby making the boat especiallyadaptable for shing and the like. Furthermore, the boat may be readilydismantled and assembled by the user, and these operations can beaccomplished by merely employing a suitable Wrench or wrenches. The boatin its folded or collapsed position may be easily transported and willoccupy a minimum of storage space.

I claim:

In a portable boat of the character described, a, hull, arms extendingoutwardly from each side of the hull, a pivotal connection between eacharm and the hull whereby each arm may swing from a horizontal positiondownwardly into substantial parallelism with the side wall of the hull,a hinged brace means cooperating with each arm and the hull to maintainsaid arms in the horizontal position, a pontoon located on each side ofthe hull, a link pivoted to the free end of each arm for movement abouta vertical axis. a swivel connection between the link and the pontoon,and means cooperating with said pivotal connection between the link andarm to secure said link and pontoon in the desired adjusted position,the position of the link relative to the arm determining the distancebetween the side wall of the hull and the pontoon.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 219,405 Kunstadter Sept. 9, 1879 337,479 Clark Mar. 9, 1886346,642 Clapham Aug. 3, 1886 1,005,478 Sandberg Oct. 10, 1911 1,125,881Pivarchy Jan. 19, 1915 1,270,608 Davis June 25, 1918 1,369,670 KauffmanFeb. 22, 1921 1,576,409 Cashoty Mar. 9, 1926 1,709,219 Hille Apr. 16,1929 2,299,178 Reiter Oct. 20, 1942 2,331,073 Harvey et al Oct. 5, 1943

